Mozilla is bringing Mixed reality for web

Mozilla has started a new development program to bring mixed reality for Web. Basically, it is easy to develop a web program that can be executed on browser or mobile only. But, bringing them on AR and VR headsets are not just hard but tedious.

New initiative taken by Mozilla is focused on to get new devices, headsets, frameworks and toolsets to work together, so that web developers can choose right toolset for the development and can developes amazing web experiences for AR and VR.

In fact there are too much work is being done in VR space like games, videos etc. but this is not true for AR. There is no way to build web pages for AR devices.

The Mixed Reality program aims to change that. We plan to work on the full continuum of specifications, browser implementations, and services required to create open VR and AR web experiences.

New API for Mixed Reality

Mozilla is proposing WebXR-api for developers that enables them to develop web applications for platforms like AR and VR. This is an extension of WebVR api released by Mozilla, written in javascript, which works with WebGL, WebAudio and the Gamepad APIs to provide direct access to the hardware platform.

The WebXR API formalizes the different ways these technologies expose views of reality around the user, and it exposes concepts common in AR platforms such as the Anchors found in Hololens, ARKit, and ARCore. You can take a look at an early implementation of this proposal, complete with examples that run on a range of AR- and VR-capable browsers.

Mozilla has also developed an open-source WebXR Viewer iOS application that uses ARKit to implement AR support for WebXR examples. Developes can compile the program by thereself. The app will be soon available on iTunes.